The race ended.
"Congratulations to Kitasan Black for conquering the Arima Kinen once again!"
Kitasan Black stood on the award podium. Below, camera flashes from every newspaper agency sparkled. Although her opponents had fought desperately, Kitasan Black had, without incident, won by a huge margin. She once again showed this world her power as the [strongest].
Although her performance in the previous Goddess Cup final had been poor, that did not mean Kitasan Black's strength had weakened. In this world, Kitasan Black's strength still surpassed all who came before her, and for now none had come after who could match her. One could say she stood alone in the truest sense.
"Please say a few words."
Facing the host's request, Kitasan Black took the microphone and was just about to say something casual to brush it off when she suddenly saw a familiar figure at the very back of the crowd below.
"..."
That pitch-black aura. Those burning golden eyes.
Overlord!
Kitasan Black's expression changed.
Noticing Kitasan Black's gaze, the Overlord lifted her eyes expressionlessly toward this "prey." What she wanted to convey was:
Kitasan Black, you have nowhere left to run.
Although Kitasan Black could not read minds, she could still see that obvious provocation. Besides, the moment the Overlord appeared before her eyes, Kitasan Black already understood why she had come. The Overlord's purpose was displayed openly, almost without concealment.
"You want to devour my power?"
Fighting spirit appeared in Kitasan Black's eyes. Her crimson eyes seemed to light with a dangerous blood-colored glow. The surrounding passersby, who did not know what was going on, all shuddered and trembled under that powerful pressure.
"Runner Kitasan Black?"
"Sorry, I have something to handle. Please leave the interview and such to my Trainer."
Kitasan Black no longer had the mood to accept a post-race interview.
In truth, if skipping the Winner's Stage did not have such a terrible impact, she would not even have had the mood for the upcoming stage performance.
After all, this was an unprecedented crisis.
It was not as if she had never encountered powerful opponents she could not defeat no matter what. The strength the Overlord had displayed before was indeed terrifying, but not enough to make her feel that victory was impossible. However, unlike every opponent she had faced in the past, the Overlord's strength was not the strongest, but she was absolutely the most dangerous opponent Kitasan Black had ever encountered.
[Fusion], which stole the opponent's power.
This dangerous ability was even more cruel than the Overlord herself.
After leaving the hall, Kitasan Black caught up to the Overlord near an exit with fewer people, where the Overlord was preparing to leave the venue. Sensing Kitasan Black chasing after her, the Overlord also stopped and turned back to look at her. She was curious what Kitasan Black wanted to do. A weakling who had run away before... had she come to beg for mercy?
No.
As soon as that thought appeared, the Overlord denied it herself. Although Kitasan Black was indeed someone with a somewhat soft personality, she was absolutely not a coward who would beg an enemy for mercy.
"Overlord, you came to race me, right?"
"A foolish question."
The Overlord's tone was cold.
If I did not come to race you and take your power, did I come to hold a family gathering? I am not that Rice Shower. I have no interest in your boring games.
"Then how do you plan to do it?"
Kitasan Black did not mind the Overlord's attitude. Instead, she took the initiative to offer a suggestion.
"If you haven't decided yet, then you can first come home with me. You probably don't have a place to stay in this world yet, right?"
"..."
The Overlord fell silent.
"What benefit does doing this bring you?"
Was she truly trying to beg for mercy?
If so, then I truly misjudged you.
Kitasan Black said seriously, "You're too dangerous. Rather than letting you run around outside, I would prefer to keep a dangerous person like you somewhere I can see you."
She did not want to see the Overlord continue in this world what she had done in the previous world. The consequences would be endless. When the time came, the Overlord could simply pat herself off and leave this world, but Kitasan Black still had to live here afterward. If this environment became worse because of that, then her future retirement life would be in trouble.
"...That is not enough to persuade me."
The Overlord did not care about Kitasan Black's evaluation.
But if Kitasan Black wanted to persuade her, this reason alone was not enough. There was no benefit for her in it, and it would even limit her growth. Kitasan Black's world was different from the initial world. The average level of umamusume in this world was quite high. As long as there were enough of them, they would be enough to improve her by quite a bit.
"Then, as a trade, how about this? I won't refuse a race with you. You should know that in this world, I have already achieved fame and success. I could announce my retirement on the spot right now if I wanted. I could completely refuse your race. The right to decide the race is on my side!"
"Fine. I agree."
The instant Kitasan Black finished speaking, the Overlord immediately gave her answer.
She did not care what Kitasan Black was thinking. To her, a race with Kitasan Black was the reason she had come to this world. As long as that goal could be accomplished, everything else was unimportant.
Therefore, no matter what Kitasan Black was considering by proposing this trade, it did not belong within the scope of what she needed to think about.
Seeing how impatient the Overlord was, Kitasan Black's expression also became incomparably serious. She felt tremendous pressure. The Overlord's behavior was simply too confident, and Kitasan Black still did not have the confidence to believe she would absolutely win.
"Let's go. I will give you time to prepare, but you had best be quick, because my patience is limited."
The Overlord did not demand an immediate race with Kitasan Black. Setting aside that her personality had not become that twisted, if the target she devoured was in poor condition, she would not obtain maximum returns. Conversely, if the target was in excellent condition, then the gains she obtained through [Fusion] would be at their best.
So she would give Kitasan Black time to ready her resolve.
Kitasan Black was somewhat surprised.
She had not interacted much with the Overlord and had originally thought she was someone more cruel and difficult to communicate with. But what the Overlord had just said made her feel that perhaps the Overlord was not actually a bad person.
"Sorry, I still have a performance, so..."
"I know."
The Overlord interrupted Kitasan Black's apology.
She took the initiative to walk toward the performance stage. She did not dislike watching the Winner's Stage. Or rather, as long as one was not truly twisted, probably no one disliked music. So simply waiting until Kitasan Black's performance ended was not something she found unacceptable.
Moreover, Kitasan Black seemed to have misunderstood her somewhat.
She had no intention of targeting anyone in particular. She was simply improving her own strength and pursuing a higher summit.
Otherwise, she would not seize power through proper races. Skills and domains were not abilities that could only take effect in races. It was simply rare for umamusume to use such powers in daily life. That did not mean they could not.
Of course, achieving that level was not something ordinary umamusume could do. After all, many umamusume could not even guarantee they would release a skill one hundred percent of the time in a race. Freely using such power in daily life was even less likely. But for the Overlord, this was truly not difficult.
The performance ended.
Kitasan Black brought the Overlord to meet her Trainer. Seeing Kitasan Black bring back an unfamiliar umamusume, the Trainer was somewhat surprised. In her impression, Kitasan Black's relationships with her classmates could not be called good. Even the young lady Satono in the same dormitory had been unable to get much closer to Kitasan Black.
She had not expected Kitasan Black to take the initiative to bring a friend back this time, and even ask the Trainer to help find her a place outside the academy.
"Um, Kitasan, who is she?"
The Trainer was very curious.
"She probably isn't a student at our academy, right?"
Although that face felt as if she had seen it somewhere in the academy, the Overlord's aura was far too unique. If she were a student, the Trainer could not possibly have never heard of her. On top of that, Kitasan Black wanted her to help find housing outside the academy, which meant the Overlord was not a student yet and therefore could not live in the dormitory. She was very curious where Kitasan Black had met the Overlord, because as a Trainer, she could sense that the Overlord was no simple person.
"Uh, she is sort of like a relative of mine?"
Kitasan Black did not want to explain too much about that side of things, so she quickly continued, "She came to duel me."
Sure enough, the Trainer's attention was drawn by the later topic.
She looked at the Overlord in surprise.
She came to duel Kitasan Black?
It seemed her feeling had not been wrong. This umamusume was definitely not simple. Otherwise, she could not have come so confidently to duel Kitasan Black. And from Kitasan Black's attitude, the Trainer could tell that her charge had shown a rare cautious and serious posture. This meant even Kitasan Black felt pressure from this umamusume's duel. That was truly unbelievable.
"You accepted?"
"Yes."
"Then I'm relieved."
Hearing Kitasan Black's answer, the Trainer let out a breath.
Kitasan Black: "?"
"After all, it's you. Since you accepted, that means you're definitely able to win, right?"
The Trainer showed a "wise" look.
She felt she had already grasped Kitasan Black's personality. She knew Kitasan Black was a fundamentally lazy child who would not take the initiative to do troublesome things. At the same time, Kitasan Black also had a very strong competitive streak. If she did not have confidence in certain victory, then she would be even less likely to waste time accepting a duel. So when she heard Kitasan Black's answer, the Trainer felt that barring accidents, this duel was already decided.
"..."
Looking at the eyes that believed in her, Kitasan Black immediately felt guilty and looked away.
Ah, well...
She could not very well confess to her Trainer that she actually did not have much confidence, could she?
Even she would be too embarrassed to say something that discouraging.
"Are you still not done? I haven't eaten yet. Since you said you would arrange things, hurry up and arrange them for me."
Seeing that they were still chatting, the Overlord could not help urging them.
Kitasan Black looked speechlessly at this completely impolite girl.
"Don't worry. Trainer already booked a restaurant."
After all, today's race had been the Arima Kinen.
Although she had easily won, to her Trainer, it was still a joyous occasion very much worth celebrating.
The Trainer had long since reserved a private room at a luxurious restaurant.
"Mm. Let's go!"
The Trainer was very happy to hear Kitasan Black's words. After all, as a Trainer, she was different from ordinary Trainers. There were not many things she could help Kitasan Black with in training, so she could only put more effort into these miscellaneous matters and take good care of her umamusume.
One night passed.
The next day, Kitasan Black went to school as usual.
But when she looked at the newspaper released by the school news club that morning, she felt exhausted. The headline clearly showed a photo of her standing together with the Overlord. From the angle, one could tell at a glance that it was a candid shot. Reporters outside did not dare secretly photograph umamusume casually, but that rule did not restrain the gossipmongers in the academy's news club. After all, the news club's membership included Gold Ship's name, which was enough to know what kind of club this was.
The moment she entered the classroom, Kitasan Black felt her classmates' gazes become abnormally terrifying. She had completely become the center of gossip.
"Hah... what an undeserved disaster."
That kind of scandal was obviously impossible no matter how one looked at it.
Kitasan Black completely failed to understand why her classmates would believe the news club's antics. After all, the overwhelming majority of the things reported by the news club were exaggerated or fabricated. They could only be treated as entertainment when one was bored. Believing that what they said was true would be the strange thing.
But what she did not actually know was that there were quite a few underground rumors about her in the academy.
Like that Student Council President, as a major figure now standing at the top of the academy in strength, people always liked to fantasize about her.
Not to mention that someone had once observed Satono Diamond secretly following her, and Satono Crown and the others acting unnaturally around her. All of these were materials enough to fuel imagination.
Add to that the forbidden book written by a certain master on the academy forum...
Without her knowing it, she had long since been suspected of being a "player."
However, Kitasan Black had recently been obsessed with training and had not paid much attention to these things. On top of that, she maintained a cold persona at the academy, so no one would take the initiative to chat with her about it. As a result, she was kept completely in the dark and had no idea what had happened.
At lunch break, Satono Crown came over and joined her table.
Although Satono Crown thought she was hiding it very well, Kitasan Black still noticed that this woman was probing for information about the Overlord.
However, Kitasan Black did not think there was anything worth hiding. And it just so happened that she wanted to use Satono Crown's influence as class representative to help clear up the rumors, so she took the initiative to reveal information about the Overlord.
"She is Overlord, a distant relative of mine. She came this time because she wants to duel me."
Behind Kitasan Black, Satono Diamond was sitting back-to-back with her.
...
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